


remember when malls existed

by thoopsy



Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: gordon thinks benrey's flirting is homophobia so there's that, i wrote this a couple months ago and am convincing myself to finish, oh you know just a dude handcuffing himself to another dude, what it was actually written FOR
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:00:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26610307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoopsy/pseuds/thoopsy
Summary: Gordon Freeman needs to get presents for his son at the mall!
Relationships: Benrey & Gordon Freeman
Comments: 5
Kudos: 48





	remember when malls existed

_ Gordon was such a horrible father. _ He was supposed to be prepping for Christmas, all this time. He had two weeks, two FULL weeks, where Nat and Alyssa were in town and watching Joshie. 

It was the perfect time to get a kitten for a kid. He'd gotten the litter boxes, a crate so it would have its own space, cat tower, loads of toys, cat food, a brush, set up several soft spots near window sills... 

He hadn't gotten the kitten, though.

Instead, he'd went and been overwhelmed by simple human interaction, [was two weeks too short notice? Was 12 days too soon? Where does one look for a cat? He'd never BOUGHT a cat before. Now it was only  _ 5 days- _ ]

Gordon Freeman went and played horror games. Yeah, sure, it was his job. It wasn't like he was hiding from all of his problems! Joshie was always more important, though. First priority.

So here he was, on January 1st, wandering around the local mall and trying to get enough toys that maybe his son wouldn't notice and be disappointed. Wouldn't think Daddy stopped loving him in two weeks. He didn't remember much of what it felt like to be 7, but emotions were bigger back then. A lackluster Post-Christmas with Daddy could spell the end. He might be talking to his therapist about it in ten years, twenty even!

_ Joshua could be Gordon's age and still fucked up about a horrible holiday. _

He was overreacting, he knew that somewhere in the very small part of his brain that wasn't busy panicking. Knowing you're being ridiculous doesn't make it any easier to  _ not _ be.

The people at the toy store looked at him like he was crazy when he bought literally six different cat plush, they were hard to hold before they'd been bagged. That hadn't made it much easier, but at least bags had handles. Holding cats, even just dolls of them, by their tails made him feel like a monster.

_ Well maybe everything was making him feel like a monster, but you can shut up. _

Maybe he should buy a seventh, a doll for every year old Joshua was. Yeah, you know, that would be nice.

His eyes came back into focus, turns out they hadn't been, and- Why was it so dark in here?

He'd been panicking under the sinks in the Men's bathroom, it was the most out of the way place where no one would have to deal with all these feelings other than him. When he stood up,  _ very _ careful not to bang his head, the lights didn't turn on. They weren't auto-off ones for power saving, then.

Three options. 

One, something was wrong electrically in this bathroom. Faulty wiring? Had to be more than the bulbs, because they definitely wouldn't have died all at once naturally.

Two, there could be a power outage. It also didn't seem super likely, weather had been really nice. No storms, no real fronts coming through. Just dreary winter, mostly.

Three, it was after closing time and he'd gotten himself locked in the mall. That one was his least favorite option.

He turned on the flashlight app on his phone, _dang_ _he didn't have a lot of battery left,_ and made his way back to the main portion of the mall.

It was either Two or Three. For a moment, he thought he wouldn't be able to know, but then he remembered he was holding a clock. 

It was only 9:17, he was  _ pretty _ sure this place stayed open until 10. Well, nothing to do but find the exit? He didn't have cash on him, he.

Wouldn't be able to get another kitty for Joshie.

Finding the exit it is!

* * *

Gordon hadn't found time to go to the local mall very often, shopping wasn't something he was into. He had what he needed, and usually so did Joshua. He outgrew things regularly, but the mall, the Loudest Place on Earth [title pending], was not where anyone wanted to come get him new clothes.

It was easy enough to find his way around with mall maps, earlier. Now was not earlier, however, and they weren't powered. Because, of  _ course _ , for SOME reason they had to be electronic. So that they could have advertisements when people weren't actively using them for their ORIGINAL INTENDED PURPOSE.

Maybe he was getting a little steamed.

It just didn't make any  _ sense. _ And of course, this place was made of pure concrete or something, blocking his phone data so he couldn't look up a map, either. 

It wasn't helping that it was oddly... Deserted. There weren't many people here before, but it was eerie. Something in the ceiling kept creaking. 

Gordon had played an absurd amount of horror games this month, Joshua's moms were busy for most of October. He hadn't played anything scary while Joshie could walk in. His subscribers were enjoying Dread December well enough.

He was not enjoying the images his brain was conjuring up. Of things in the ventilation system or whatever else was up there.

"It's the anxiety talking, Gordon." He muttered, "Just the uh. Mall settling?"

As he passed the Claire's again, it really started to set in that he might be fucked. Unless he could find another human, he might really get locked in here.

Then his phone died on him. "WELL  _ okay _ then. Does this place have any windows?"

Something metal fell to the ground with a clang, and then something else thunked. He spun to look. Of course, he couldn't see anything. If his voice squeaked when he said, "Howdy?" he wasn't gonna admit to it.

Suddenly, something knocked him to the floor, and his head hit the tile. It was so jarring that he thought the glowing eyes was some sort of side effect. Until a bored voice said, "were you gonna break a window? that's not allowed, buddy."

Someone was standing over him, a foot on his chest. Eloquently, very put together, Gordon responded. "WHATTHEHELL!"

"dude, friend, no need to yell. you're just a criminal m not gonna eatcha."

The implication that whoever this was might eat him was enough for Gordon's already irrational thoughts to spiral into worse things, and he swiped the leg off with his prosthetic. It was still under warranty.

The person toppled to the ground, and Gordon took off running, bag of cats still in hand. The terror had him tight around his heart,  _ he had to escape he had to get  _ **_away-_ **

Of course, it's really easy to run into walls when you can't see. The running idea was stupid, his brain supplied  _ after _ he'd already done it.

So instead, he swiveled to face where his attacker... Probably was? They'd just have to make a sound, and he'd lunge. With his. Reflexes. Ah, he was really screwed.

There was light, it HURT  _ oh fuck how dilated were his eyes _ and he squeezed them shut on reflex, completely falling prey to whatever madman had knocked him down and was maybe a cannibal. Seriously, who said they  _ weren't _ gonna eat someone?

Something clamped down on his wrist. "you can't break windows in here. that's against the- it's not allowed."

Gordon squinted his eyes open, the flashlight had been moved thank FUCK, to find that the hand he'd automatically thrown up in front of his eyes had a. Handcuff. The other end lead to the wrist of what looked like a perfectly normal security guard. "W- I wasn't going to  _ break _ a window, I just wanted to see, man."

"mm." They responded, looking at their nails, for some reason. "cool story."

"No, no,  _ true _ story. My phone battery died, I'm just trying to find an exit." His heart was still beating Real fast, but seeing a normal human person, who was shorter and he could totally take in a fight, instead of some supernatural creature or unhinged looking somebody? Well it helped. 

"yeah, 'course you wanna get out. look at you. stealin cats. that's not allowed either." They gestured to Joshua's presents.

Okay well this was just getting irritating. "I bought those. For my son."

Something about their expression changed, but then it was gone again quickly. It was definitely just the light playing tricks on him, they were Not holding it steady. "receipt?"

Gordon sighed, "I got it sent to my email, dude. Look, the power is clearly out in here, and my phone is dead. If you really want? After your shift, you can come home with me, I'll show you there."

"wha."

"I'll stay late, it's fine. When does it end? Like, a couple hours, max? I don't live very far." Sure it was inconvenient, and maybe a little stupid, but like. There was probably no other way to show them other than the email, right? It was better than "resisting arrest" or whatever. This guy seemed power thirsty.

Could mall cops do arrests? Embarrassingly enough, the only frame of reference he had was Paul Blart... memes. He'd never. Seen the film. 

"what are you. gay. inviting me home. wanna have your wicked way with me."

Gordon flinched back, he didn't like the implications. Or the homophobia? "NO! What, no, I don't  _ have _ wicked ways!" Fuck that was kind of an odd sentence, "It's just the fastest way for us to put this behind us so I can wrap these."

They considered him for a moment. "wrapping stolen goods. hiding the evidence?"

"Are we going or not? Either this or you send me to mall... jail. Does that exist? Is mall jail real?" They didn't give him a response, instead, they just started walking. Since he liked the flesh hand and it being attached, he came with. 

The silence was fine. For a very short amount of time. For some reason, this guy was walking backwards and looking at him all the time. They weren't even making intimidating eye contact, they were looking at his shirt.

It occurred to him that, hey, this was another human! He could, like, ask it questions! You asocial bastard! “So why is the mall so dark, anyway?” 

“‘s closed. duh.”

“What? That can’t be right, you close at 10.”

“not on new years day, bro. pparently s a big deal. ever heard of it.”

Gordon groaned, and his prosthetic went to his hair. Stress thing. “How did I  _ forget? _ Okay, yeah, I fucked that up.”

“sure did, crime boy.” 

This was going to be a long, long night for Gordon Freeman.

**Author's Note:**

> haha what if... you were at the mall.... and I handcuffed us together so you didn't steal anything because I'm some sort of lawful alignment.
> 
> I literally haven't been inside a building that isn't my house since mid March, Gordon better treasure it.


End file.
